Wait times exceeded 10 hours for some in Health Science Centre's emergency room

Some patients had to wait more than 10 hours for care in Health Science Centre's emergency room this weekend.

A spokesperson for Shared Health told CTV News the hospital in Winnipeg saw a significant demand from extremely sick and injured patients in the emergency room leading to longer wait times.

Dr. Shawn Young, the chief operating officer of HSC, said the median wait time for less acute patients was 3.5 hours, but some patients with less serious problems waited more than 10 hours.

"It was a tough time. Staff struggled through, but I felt bad for the patients – they did wait. Especially those that were less acute, there were some pretty prolonged wait times for them as well. So a really, really challenging weekend for all of us," Young told CTV News.

"The more acute patients typically still get treated fairly timely, but even this last weekend we were pushed a bit."

Shared Health said in statement, the overall number of patients in the emergency department over the weekend was not unusual, but multiple, simultaneous arrivals of extremely sick and injured patients drove up demand for beds.

"There was a high demand, a high number of acute patients in particular on Sunday. The other really important factor here is that we had over 40 admitted patients that we could not find a bed for in the facility or other facilities," said Young.

Shared Health noted the patient demand experienced couldn't be predicted or planned for. But Doctors Manitoba says it shouldn't have come as a surprise.

"Do I think this was a one-time event that was going to happen one time only? No," said Dr. Candace Bradshaw, president of the organization. "I think this has been brewing for a while and will continue until the problems will get addressed."

Young said while a lot of the attention is on emergency departments, that is only where the problem is felt and not where it actually is.

"When any other element of the health care system is not functioning properly because of staffing, because of bed capacity, it always eventually ends up backing up into the emergency department," Young said.

"I'm not aware of any element of the health care system right now that is fully staffed."

He said the vacancy rates are the highest he has seen. He confirmed no patients were airlifted out of the hospital this past weekend in order to seek alternative care.